(Oregon Coast) – It's hard to believe it's now closing in on ten years since the Great Coastal Gale of 2007. On December 2 and 3 of that year, hurricane force winds of over 100 miles per hour and major flooding battered the Oregon coast, leaving scars that still exist to this day.

Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff were not on the coast during the melee – they were essentially trapped in Portland by the storm. Even then, it took a few days for the road to clear. But once officials had reopened Highway 26, staff produced this now-popular video that takes an engaging look into the aftermath of that enormous storm.

The north coast was literally torn apart. The video shows chunks of Seaside and Nehalem in pieces, but most dramatically the massive trees along the Coast Range that had been snapped in half or slapped down like wooden sticks. You get a glimpse of the eerie darkness that hit the area because of the lack of power. You hear tales of insane winds doing even less sane things to people's homes, including lifting up a small dog into the air.

Still, it was surprising to find many in such good spirits. Some were reveling in the novelty of it all.

Chunks of the Coast Range highways still bear those marks.

Interestingly enough, a mere half a week before that storm, conditions were gorgeous and calm. A sunny day bathed the beach in warmth in the afternoon, although things got chilly during a lovely sunset.

Even stranger still: the Oregon coast was unbelievably beautiful for the next few days after the storm. The video shows that striking calm as well.

The end results of that storm had some interestingly positive side effects. That winter was especially raucous, with bigger-than-usual wave action for a lot of the season. The Great Coastal Gale, in particular, took some hefty chunks out of sand levels that winter.

Consequently, by January of 2008, sand levels were at some of the lowest they had been in perhaps decades along the coast. This created a bevy of wild finds that had been covered up, including the two historic cannon that helped give Cannon Beach its name, found in Arch Cape by a Lake Oswego family.